Diary of an Arcade Employee

Halloween masks

Can’t afford one of the swell vintage masks featured in yesterday’s costume post – especially not at eBay prices – perhaps you can scrounge up enough coin for a specially marked box of cereal.

Breakfast cereal companies have long incentivized consumers to purchase their products with prizes, such as a promotional toy inside the box or a fun goodie printed on the outside of the box itself. One such goodie is the decorative mask, assembly sometimes required.

As Kellogg’s tells us in their ads, enjoying holiday masks is easy, just cut ’em out–and put ’em on–for super Halloween fun! They’re colorful, comic, life-size–swell for parties, Beggars’ Night, or Trick-or-Treat. Ask Mom to get you several mask packages right away! Maybe one of these fabulous examples.

Neato Coolville provides this image offering a glimpse at a wide variety of cereal masks from Kellogg’s.

Back in the day, people would don masks in order to ward off evil spirits. Some thought that a frightening mask would scare away the ghosts and ghoulies; others thought that a mask would make them unrecognizable to the spirits, and that with their identity hidden the spirits would proceed to another home.

Nowadays, people are more likely to wear masks in order to transform themselves into a fantasy world, to adopt a persona that doesn’t reflect their real life. Some go the creepy route in an attempt to garner a reaction of terror from others.

Whatever your motivation, be sure to put on a fun mask this Halloween…preferably one that’s flame retarded, reflective, ventilated, and with large eye holes. Check out these vintage in-box beauties.

The space race produced many marvels, including this cool NASA guy. Image by Christian Montone.

Classic ’80s Vader. Image by The Nostalgic Nugget.

Can’s see the full costume, but this “Devil” looks a bit like a pirate to me. I guess devils are swarthy too, just with pointier mustaches. Image by Ballyhooligan.

Clowns are always a good creepy choice. Image by kentuckyslone.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shdwknt/5027001402/
Skeletor, arch-enemy and main antagonist of He-Man, and super-awesome mask. A steal at $5.27 from Fay’s Drugs. Image by shdw-knt.

Huckleberry Hound, always a favorite. Image by vincentvangopher.

A beautiful vintage Planet of the Apes mask – I bet the success of 2011’s “Rise” will create a resurgence of monkey men this Halloween. But the modern version won’t likely be available for a mere $2.97 at Woolco. Image by gregg_koenig.

A reflective nurse, who could ask for more. And the mouth hole is just big enough for a cigarette…popular at the time, but kids, don’t smoke. Image by socal72girl.

Is that a monster mask within a clown body? Image by Neato Coolville.

I didn’t know Frankenstein parted his hair in the middle, nice salt-n-pepper ‘do. Image by toyranch.

The patriotic look is never a bad choice…and only $1.98 at G.C. Murphy Co.. A mouth hole would have been nice for talking, but at least you can breath through the nose holes. Image by Brechtbug.